Missing from the nutrition facts box: food for thought.
I think I'm about two weeks into summer quarter and philosophy (intro) is already amusing. Instead of using a textbook we're using books that the philosophers wrote. (Even with around six books the total cost was less than a textbook...makes you wonder about the publisher-school complex.) Predictably we started in Ancient Greece with the "Dialogues of Plato" [Or what I remember Socrates supposedly saying with some artistic license.]
Possibly more interesting than the philosophy was learning some of the history and culture that isn't covered or taught in school. This becomes important in the Symposeum, where a group (and likely drunk due to the festival of Dionysus aka making frat parties pale in comparison) discuss if Eros is a god or not, the nature and purpose of Eros, what is love, what is beauty, the nature of desire, etc. Knowledge about Eros is known as "erotics," I think you can feel in the blanks there. But this isn't as clear-cut as one might think, which brings us to:
Greek Culture they most likely didn't teach you.
-Of all the naked statues males ones were more common and appeared long before anyone thought to make a female statue. (Many of the better known female statues are in fact Roman, Renasaince, or during one of the Classical comebacks.) In fact many religious/mythological statues had erections... There's even an event of recorded vandalism (in Ancient Greece) where someone went around and broke off that part of the statues.
-Beauty was defined as masculine. The male body was beautiful and was the standard. (Then why is Aphrodite female?)
-Only males could be citizens. Only males went to school etc. (Except for in Sparta where females received schooling and combat training, though not as extensive as the males.)
-A male would be married when he was older, 30-40ish or even older, the bride however would be 15.
-All of this combined to; men are better, women are dumb (no education), overly childish (the age difference), and my wife doesn't understand me. In other words, homo-eroticism was the norm, but everyone would be married to the opposite sex to fulfill their duty to the state aka have kids. If a younger male was more on the hetero side he'd have to settle for prostitutes and/or slaves. They also weren't monogamous by any stretch. In fact ancient dildoes, clay pottery painted with "instructions", and pottery with pornographic art have all been discovered. (But then again by looking at the adventures of Zeus who can be surprised?)
I find this very amusing as Ancient Greece is put upon a pedestal (or should it be a dorian column?) in our society for being one of the great civilizations and for its ideas that influenced us. When in reality the "democracy" at Athens was as like the Roman Senate, but with many more people. Then of course we're mostly monotheistic, Ancient Greece wasn't, a fair amount of our society wants us to see homosexuality as "abnormal, bad, a sin," while in Ancient Greece it was expected...
We praise an Ancient Civilization that in some ways is our opposite.
Greek History on its own could be a crazy soap opera, and adding the mythology would only amplify it.
Tangent: A few weeks ago I started playing Guild Wars. Anyone else play or had played it?
Possibly more interesting than the philosophy was learning some of the history and culture that isn't covered or taught in school. This becomes important in the Symposeum, where a group (and likely drunk due to the festival of Dionysus aka making frat parties pale in comparison) discuss if Eros is a god or not, the nature and purpose of Eros, what is love, what is beauty, the nature of desire, etc. Knowledge about Eros is known as "erotics," I think you can feel in the blanks there. But this isn't as clear-cut as one might think, which brings us to:
Greek Culture they most likely didn't teach you.
-Of all the naked statues males ones were more common and appeared long before anyone thought to make a female statue. (Many of the better known female statues are in fact Roman, Renasaince, or during one of the Classical comebacks.) In fact many religious/mythological statues had erections... There's even an event of recorded vandalism (in Ancient Greece) where someone went around and broke off that part of the statues.
-Beauty was defined as masculine. The male body was beautiful and was the standard. (Then why is Aphrodite female?)
-Only males could be citizens. Only males went to school etc. (Except for in Sparta where females received schooling and combat training, though not as extensive as the males.)
-A male would be married when he was older, 30-40ish or even older, the bride however would be 15.
-All of this combined to; men are better, women are dumb (no education), overly childish (the age difference), and my wife doesn't understand me. In other words, homo-eroticism was the norm, but everyone would be married to the opposite sex to fulfill their duty to the state aka have kids. If a younger male was more on the hetero side he'd have to settle for prostitutes and/or slaves. They also weren't monogamous by any stretch. In fact ancient dildoes, clay pottery painted with "instructions", and pottery with pornographic art have all been discovered. (But then again by looking at the adventures of Zeus who can be surprised?)
I find this very amusing as Ancient Greece is put upon a pedestal (or should it be a dorian column?) in our society for being one of the great civilizations and for its ideas that influenced us. When in reality the "democracy" at Athens was as like the Roman Senate, but with many more people. Then of course we're mostly monotheistic, Ancient Greece wasn't, a fair amount of our society wants us to see homosexuality as "abnormal, bad, a sin," while in Ancient Greece it was expected...
We praise an Ancient Civilization that in some ways is our opposite.
Greek History on its own could be a crazy soap opera, and adding the mythology would only amplify it.
Tangent: A few weeks ago I started playing Guild Wars. Anyone else play or had played it?